Seasonal Dilemmas

It is the middle of December, but in Japan the weather was so mild this autumn that the foliage of the trees did no reach their peak until now. Viewing autumn colors is almost as important as viewing cherry blossoms in spring and inextricably linked to the Japanese feeling for the seasons as extolled in numberless Nihonron, which basically are theories about the Japanese written by Japanese to be read by Japanese in order to find out what is Japanese about the Japanese. The unseasonable warmth however has led to a terrible mix up of autumn colors and Christmas ornaments, not to mention Christmas carols that are inflicted upon everyone daring to step into any sort of public location.

Local Elections

It is quite interesting to compare the different expressions politicians or/and their consultants think will endear them to the general public. Some smiles are friendly and warm, some are inane and irritating, some border on the lunatic fringe. It also seems to be quite important to have proper Japanese black hair, preferably a lot of it.
Hair in politics might be an interesting topic. I remember the female Thai candidate who ran for local office in Ayuthaya and whose campaign seemed to rely entirely on a huge majestic hairdo that was prominently displayed even in local tuk-tuks. As if Margret Thatcher and her hairstyle, described by Alan Hollinghurst as 'a fine if improbable fusion of the Vorticist and the Baroque' (in 'The Line of Beauty'), were the embodiment of some mythical 'hair of power'. It is true that the Prime Minister's hairdo grew over the years out of all proportions and rumour has it that the Baroness was determined to outdo the Queen, in the absence of a crown with pure hair, it seems. The rivalry between the two female heads of state in the 80's is often remarked upon: Apparently the Queen wouldn't let the PM sit during the weekly audiences. There was a brief but telling newsclip on telly when Baroness Thatcher celebrated her 80th birthday two years ago. When her car drove up to the Mandarin Oriental, she had to use a walking stick and was supported on one side. The Queen, sitting in her Bentley behind her obviously saw this display of frailty and as if to make a point of it, she burst out of her car, literally 'jumped' out of it with a victorious smile.....

Backstage

As I am currently re-reading Goffman's brilliant 'Presentation of Self in Everyday Life', I thought this picture might be appropriate. It is a view of the stage of the National Theatre in Hanzômon, seen from backstage. While many houses in Europe and America are designed to be representative of the inhabitant's taste and sophistication (and often horribly fail in doing so), Japanese interiors are to a much larger degree 'backstage' to their presentation of self. It is not very common to entertain guests at one's house and if one does so, the guest only enters the small part of the house that is made representative through preparation. Interestingly, that space for formal visits is usually not used by the rest of the family at all. It always struck me as slightly odd that my hostfamily and me would sit in the crammed kitchen while there was a large empty tatami room just on the other side of the corridor. Over time I realised that it is precisely this backstage setting that made me part of the family and that I sometimes disrupted by being to formal and polite.

Treacherous Objects

How we are depending on objects to convey the 'right' message to those who see them as belonging to us! I remember a birthday party of a friend in his new, self-remade flat in Stuttgart. As an architect and 'Bildungsbürger', he paid utmost attention to all details, from the lavish art tomes on the bookshelves to the miniature reproductions of antique statues. There was, however, on the central shelf of a glass cabinet, a small Egyptian obelisk complete with hieroglyphs in rather too colourful shades. It stood out like a sore thumb among all the rest and I was drawn to it almost magically. I felt a peculiar thrill at immediately finding the object that by not belonging there exposed some of the pretence and at the same time was shocked by being such an interior Nazi. As the evening progressed and everybody got blissfully drunk, I asked the host about this 'éclipse du goût' and he confessed that the obelisk was one of the few concessions he had to make for his much younger boyfriend whose possessions and 'youthful taste' were apparently underrepresented. When I later met the boyfriend himself, I couldn't help but feel that he shared the obelisk's lot in this artsy, 30-something crowd.

Tokyo Landscape V

This is the view from the top floor of the Tokyo University Library in Komaba where I sometimes ponder the more irritating problems of rubbish fieldword. You can see the Park Hyatt's triple towers followed on the far left by the Tokyo Opera City in Hatsudai.

Tokyo Landscape IV

It is still unseasonally warm and pleasant. This is Ochanomizu at 8 o'clock in the morning. Looks almost picturesque for Tokyo.

Tokyo Landscape III

Early winter sunset over the Park Hyatt, Shinjuku's recent new landmark building. The hype created by Sophie Coppola's film 'Lost in Translation' disguises that fact that it is done in a rather bland corporate style. Rumor has it that there is a huge pool under one of the glas pyramids...